Sarkis Soghanalian

Sarkis Soghanalian, an international weapons broker who was nicknamed "The Merchant of Death" for selling arms to dictators on behalf of the United States, died Oct. 5 at a hospital in Hialeah, Fla. He was 82. The cause was heart failure, said his son, Garo. He had a long history of covert arms trafficking, brokering millions of dollars' worth of weapons and munitions over the years to the Christian militia in Lebanon, to Argentina during the Falkland Islands war, to the Nicaraguan Contras and to Iraq during that country's war with Iran.

Sarkis Soghanalian, an international weapons broker who was nicknamed "The Merchant of Death" for selling arms to dictators on behalf of the United States, died Oct. 5 at a hospital in Hialeah, Fla. He was 82. The cause was heart failure, said his son, Garo. He had a long history of covert arms trafficking, brokering millions of dollars' worth of weapons and munitions over the years to the Christian militia in Lebanon, to Argentina during the Falkland Islands war, to the Nicaraguan Contras and to Iraq during that country's war with Iran.

An arms dealer and his son surrendered to U.S. Customs Service agents on charges they tried to smuggle combat helicopters to Iraq and hired U.S. Air Force reserve officers to train Iraqis to fly jets captured from Iran. Also indicted separately in the case were two former Hughes Helicopter executives, Carl D. Perry and William Ellis, accused of helping arrange the helicopter deal and a TOW missile shipment.

After examining a secret government document, a Los Angeles federal judge on Monday agreed to sentence an international arms dealer with close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency to 10 months in prison--time already served--on a charge of wire fraud. In exchange for Sarkis Soghanalian's cooperation in an unspecified investigation, the U.S. attorney's office recommended that he spend no further time behind bars. At the outset of Monday's hearing, U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W.

November 1, 2000 | WILLIAM C. REMPEL and SEBASTIAN ROTELLA, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

The business was guns. The place was a yacht club in Lima. And the gracious host of the lunch last year, according to the man who says he was the guest of honor, was the all-powerful chief of Peru's intelligence service, Vladimiro Montesinos. Montesinos oozed charm, says Sarkis Soghanalian, a rotund arms trafficker and occasional U.S. intelligence informant known as "The Merchant of Death."

After examining a secret government document, a Los Angeles federal judge on Monday agreed to sentence an international arms dealer with close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency to 10 months in prison--time already served--on a charge of wire fraud. In exchange for Sarkis Soghanalian's cooperation in an unspecified investigation, the U.S. attorney's office recommended that he spend no further time behind bars. At the outset of Monday's hearing, U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W.

An international arms dealer nicknamed "The Merchant of Death" has been arrested here on charges that he conspired to defraud a Los Angeles bank of more than $3 million. Sarkis Soghanalian, 70, was taken into custody last week and is being held without bond pending extradition to Los Angeles to face a 10-count federal indictment charging him with bank fraud and money laundering.

Millionaire arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian was found guilty Friday of violating federal weapons smuggling and conspiracy statutes in connection with a failed attempt to sell 103 helicopters and two rocket launchers to Iraq in 1983. After two days of deliberation, a 12-member jury decided that Soghanalian conspired with two former executives of the Los Angeles-based Hughes Helicopter Corp. to skirt a U.S. export ban on arms sales to Iraq, and then lied about it.

Reports by the syndicated television news magazine "Inside Edition" that CBS News reporter Bob Simon and his crew are being held as prisoners of war in Iraq are unconfirmed, CBS spokesman Tom Goodman said Wednesday, but they mirror earlier accounts of the missing journalists' whereabouts. "There are indications based on second-, third- and fourth-hand sources that they were taken to Kuwait and then eventually to Baghdad, but nobody knows that's true," Goodman said.

An international arms dealer with close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court on Monday to defrauding City National Bank of $250,000 in a stolen check scam. Sarkis Soghanalian, 72, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for wire fraud, but prosecutors have agreed to recommend leniency in exchange for his testimony against other suspects. U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew ordered him to return June 4 for sentencing.

November 1, 2000 | WILLIAM C. REMPEL and SEBASTIAN ROTELLA, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

The business was guns. The place was a yacht club in Lima. And the gracious host of the lunch last year, according to the man who says he was the guest of honor, was the all-powerful chief of Peru's intelligence service, Vladimiro Montesinos. Montesinos oozed charm, says Sarkis Soghanalian, a rotund arms trafficker and occasional U.S. intelligence informant known as "The Merchant of Death."

An international arms dealer nicknamed "The Merchant of Death" has been arrested here on charges that he conspired to defraud a Los Angeles bank of more than $3 million. Sarkis Soghanalian, 70, was taken into custody last week and is being held without bond pending extradition to Los Angeles to face a 10-count federal indictment charging him with bank fraud and money laundering.

An arms dealer and his son surrendered to U.S. Customs Service agents on charges they tried to smuggle combat helicopters to Iraq and hired U.S. Air Force reserve officers to train Iraqis to fly jets captured from Iran. Also indicted separately in the case were two former Hughes Helicopter executives, Carl D. Perry and William Ellis, accused of helping arrange the helicopter deal and a TOW missile shipment.

U.S. and allied troops face a tougher fight than they think, predict two men who claim ties to the Iraqi leadership. One says he was President Saddam Hussein's bodyguard and hired killer, and the other says he sold Iraq many of its weapons. The bodyguard, who out of fear identified himself only as Capt. Karim, and the arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, told CBS-TV in separate interviews that: -- Hussein has a secret underground base where he is hiding much of his air force.

The day before an attempted military coup back home in the Philippines, Imelda Marcos--who left 3,000 pairs of shoes behind when she fled last year--went shopping. Among her $2,000 worth of purchases from an army surplus store: combat boots, camouflage outfits and belts. This, according to government officials in the Philippines, was the gear she bought for what she and her husband, Ferdinand, president for 20 years until his overthrow last February, planned as a "glorious homecoming."